


What I learnt on my Gap Year

by Vgwd



Series: Pets at Home [3]
Category: Being Human, Being Human (UK)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-06
Updated: 2013-05-06
Packaged: 2017-12-10 14:50:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/787266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vgwd/pseuds/Vgwd





	What I learnt on my Gap Year

The last few months have been an education. She's listed all of the things she's learnt. Mentally listed them - for some reason she can never find any pens around and Mr Snow doesn't like her obsessive listing anyway. Unless it's useful things like where his cufflinks are. Which combination of tie and tie pin he has worn together; that sort of thing. So she makes her own lists in her head. 

She's learnt that it takes a long time to organise the removal of the old ones from their current tropical home to Barry in South Wales. There's packing to do, (secret packing from the vaults. Vaults she's not supposed to know about). Money has to be transferred into UK bank accounts, places to stay have to be arranged. And it's not like they can just book tickets on a flight or even a cruise ship. But they are going by ship. When he'd told her that, she'd got excited - she's seen "An Affair to Remember". But no, it's not a cruiseliner because you still have to have passports for those. It's a cargo ship. With a Captain willing to sail across the ocean with them all on board. One who will drop them off in Barry docks and say nothing about his passengers. So she is a bit disappointed because she's never been on a cruise and is now, not likely to ever get the chance. 

She's learnt to read his moods. This one was important. She learnt it quickly because an angry Mr Snow is a dangerous Mr Snow and the key to a relatively pain and injury free life is keeping Mr Snow happy. Or if not happy then not making him angry. She knows that if he is preoccupied, thoughtful or distant (rubbing his fingers on his temple) then she should be quiet and obedient. If he's frustrated or irritable then she should stay silent and unmoving in the corner until he gives her a direct order. The order is usually for a cup of tea because he likes how she makes it. Strong but milky. She doesn't joke that that is how she likes her men. He doesn't find it funny. And now she has a scar on her lip where his ring ripped her skin. If he's voluble and avuncular then that is when she knows she can get away with things. She can ask for little treats. To watch some tv, a walk in the grounds, a bottle of Dr Pepper. She knows that when he is in those moods, she can crawl on his lap and he'll dispense the gifts generously if she's kittenish and playful. He feels magnanimous and she feels a bit less human. 

She's learnt how to flirt. How to flirt with a proper adult. Technically, she is an adult. She can vote. She can travel on her own . (Look how that turned out.) If she hadn't taken a gap year, she'd be at university now. But it's different, shyly flirting with the boys at school and college and flirting with a creature older than Pyramids. He calls her coquettish. (She had to look it up) And he seems to like it so she's learnt to flirt with him like a Victorian. All big eyes, delicate bones (she's lost a LOT of weight. No one seems to eat much here. Not food anyway.) She's learnt to give him tiny, chaste, fluttery kisses when she wants something big. 

She's learnt to live with pain, to not notice it. She's learnt self control. Mr Snow likes to see her bleed. She is pale. Paler now after months in the compound. Se's learnt to stay completely still when he draws a blade as sharp as sunlight across her skin. He likes to make her bleed then lick the blood away. She barely notices it any more. The blade is sharp and it only really stings when she gets in the bath and the water turns pink. She's fallen asleep during this ritual, more than once. He plays noughts and crosses on her flesh and she stays completely still, drifting off and only waking up when he penetrates her. She's learnt that orgasms are amazing. 

She's learnt about Stockholm Syndrome. The hard way. She thinks she's probably (definitely) suffering from it. She's looked it up, (she likes the library. It's cool and dark and quiet). She's got used to Mr Snow now. She's got used to the collar that used to make her cry. The collar she once hated makes her feel safe now. There are dangerous people in the compound, he's told her. People so depraved and desperate that they think anyone is fair game. So the collar marks her out as owned. The collar tells them that she is not to be touched because she belongs to him. It's the only rule they'll abide by. So she should keep it on. For her own safety. She hadn't believed him. She does now. She'd earned two favours. An hour without the collar. And a walk in the garden while he worked in his office. He was watching her from the window. Which was lucky because a crazed, shouty, bitey woman had launched herself at her. Had knocked her to the floor and tried to rip at her face. Two guards had tasered and dragged the woman away and no one had seen her since. Mr Snow had made sure that she always had guards with her now, when she left the suite. It was more for her benefit, so she'd feel safe but since then she'd worn the collar non stop. And she'd never been so glad to curl up in the huge bed with him; tucking her body against his. She feels safest when he is around and she thinks that it must be Stockholm Syndrome. 

She's learnt she'll never go home. How could she? Even if by some miracle, the Old Ones were all destroyed and she survived, how could she go home to her family? They think she died in the fire at the school. (The fire was set deliberately - to cover the attack). No survivors. Mr Snow has shown her the report in the Daily Mail - the only British newspaper he can get for her. She can't explain to them what happened. "Hi, I didn't die, I was kept by an ancient vampire as a sort of cat / concubine." (Another word she's looked up. She thinks it's the right one). "It was ok though, sort of because I only got attacked once by some mental blood fiend, all the other scars are from him. He was quite funny when you got to know him. Quite the raconteur." No. She's not going home. So she learnt how to do the wages. And the filing. And the monthly accounts. Because when Mr Snow gets bored of her, like he did with Carlos and Thomasina and Perro, she has no intention of being tossed aside to the others. She plans to move seamlessly from Mr Snow's bed to Mr Snow's office. She's learnt to make herself useful. 

She's learnt that she is nothing if not resilient.


End file.
